


Not an End (But the Start of All Things)

by sugarlessgum



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s04e13 No Better To Be Safe Than Sorry, Fix-It, M/M, Resurrection, Reunions, The Library, Welters Challenge 2019, fuck canon and fuck the showrunners, my city now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-09 13:27:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18639019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarlessgum/pseuds/sugarlessgum
Summary: "Our branch has gotten an influx of employees after the Monster's massacre," Penny explains. "The Neitherlands, on the other hand, is seriously understaffed at the moment.""You—" Quentin stops. His thinking is still a bit clouded. Surely Penny can't be suggesting what Quentin thinks he's suggesting. "You want me to work in the Neitherlands branch? Don't you have to be, you know, alive? To do that?""Dude. You stopped the Monster and his sister—something even the gods couldn't do—and took out Everett before he became a real threat. Hades himself offered your life back as a reward. With conditions, obviously."





	Not an End (But the Start of All Things)

**Author's Note:**

> At this point, I'm sure it goes without saying how unhappy I am with the finale. These characters have always belonged to us, and I promise to do my part to fill this fandom with positivity and give these characters the stories they deserve.
> 
> Title comes from "Wasteland, Baby!" by Hozier

"So, here's the thing."

They're sitting in Penny's dimly lit office. Quentin stares into his mug. He still hasn't gotten over the shock of being here. Hasn't fully accepted the weight of what he did. Penny has been patient and careful with him since he got off the elevator, which is perhaps the most bizarre part of all this.

"We have a job offer for you," Penny continues. Quentin meets his gaze, brow furrowed.

"The Library?"

"You sound surprised."

"Maybe you forgot, but the Library has been hunting me for the past year."

"We're under new management. _Someone_ killed our Head of Circulation."

"And now they want the guy who killed their last boss... working for them."

"Believe it or not, we appreciate it. Word spread fast about what he was doing to the hedge witches, and what he planned on doing with the Monster's power." Quentin sets his mug on the table and rubs a hand over his face.

"So, what? I spend the next billion years working with you in the Underworld? Because I won't lie, I have missed you, but we'd probably end up double-killing each other if we tried to do that." Penny smiles.

"You're probably right. But that's not what we're offering. For one thing, you won't be getting the standard billion-year contract. You're being offered more of an... independent contractor position. Twenty years, with the opportunity for renewal. And you wouldn't be working in the Underworld branch."

Quentin sits up straighter in his chair. "What? What do you mean? Where else would I be working?"

"Our branch has gotten an influx of employees after the Monster's massacre," Penny explains. "The Neitherlands, on the other hand, is seriously understaffed at the moment."

"You—" Quentin stops. His thinking is still a bit clouded. Surely Penny can't be suggesting what Quentin thinks he's suggesting. "You want me to work in the Neitherlands branch? Don't you have to be, you know, alive? To do that?"

"Dude. You stopped the Monster and his sister—something even the gods couldn't do—and took out Everett before he became a real threat. Hades himself offered your life back as a reward. With conditions, obviously."

If Quentin thought he was in shock before, he can't even begin to describe what he's feeling now. He opens and closes his mouth, makes a few aborted attempts at a response. He starts crying again, a wildly different feeling from the tears he'd shed only moments ago in this office.

"I can go back?" he finally asks.

"Yeah, man. You can go back." Penny rummages through a desk drawer and pulls out a short stack of paper. "What do you say?"

 

Alice is waiting for him when he gets to the Neitherlands. They sent him immediately after signing the contract, wearing the clothes he died in. He isn't sure how they salvaged his body—or if they simply made him a new one—but he's too high off the rush of being alive again to really care.

Alice stands at the end of the dimly lit hall, nearly unrecognizable at first glance. Her hair is pulled into victory rolls, she's replaced her glasses with cat eye frames, and she's decked out in the outlandishly retro clothing he's come to expect from Librarians. She cuts an austere figure, an illusion that shatters in a second as she launches herself into his arms.

Quentin wraps his arms around her and settles a cheek against the top of her head. "I'm so sorry."

"Just promise not to do anything like that ever again."

"Promise." They pull away and smile at each other, small and cautiously relieved. "Penny told me you're Head Librarian now."

Alice nods. "Zelda took over Everett's position. She came to Kady and me a few weeks ago, asking for help."

"Weeks... Is that how long I've been gone?" He knows time works differently in the Underworld but he hadn't thought he'd been gone that long. Although, considering the state he was in at the time, it's entirely possible he'd been waiting there for a while before he met with Penny and hadn't realized. Alice looks heartbroken all over again.

"Yes, Quentin. It's been over a month."

"How is everyone? Eliot?"

"Alive. Healing. His wound from the axe finally closed up, but something happened to his leg and they haven't been able to fix it. Lipson thinks the Monster must have injured it at some point and it never healed properly." Quentin clenches his jaw and tries to push down a wave of guilt. Alice sees it on his face immediately. "It's not your fault. There's no way you could have watched him every second of every day. You kept Eliot alive and you found a way to bring him back. That's what matters."

"Right. You're right." He studies Alice's face, a new kind of guilt taking over. "Listen, Alice..."

She holds up a hand to cut him off. "It's okay, Quentin. I already know. After you— Eliot and I told each other everything. It actually helped a lot, having someone to talk through things with. And I think we both know going down that road again wasn't the best decision."

"I still meant what I said. I want you in my life."

"Well, that's good. Because we're gonna be stuck with each other for a while." She takes his hand and leads him down the hall. "Let's get you cleaned up so you can see the others."

 

Alice tells him that Eliot had spent his months with the Monster trapped in a dream version of the Cottage. The first week after he returned, he became convinced he was still there, trapped in his own mind. So the group retreated to the safety of Kady's penthouse, hoping the change of scenery would help him adjust.

Now Quentin stood outside the door to the apartment, Alice at his back.

"Do you want me to go first?" she asks. "Tell them what happened?"

"No. No, I'll do it." She passes Quentin her spare key. He takes a steadying breath and steps through the door.

He sees Julia first, hunched over in the gold chair, head buried in a book. She looks like she hasn't slept in days and it breaks his heart. His eyes land on Eliot next and the world stops for a minute. Quentin had become painfully accustomed to seeing the Monster in this space, but there's no question it's Eliot. He's tamed his hair, replaced the Monster's novelty tees with his signature vest and button down—though it's all black now. As Quentin walks further into the room, he notices the books spread out between the two. He recognizes them instantly. They're the same ones he scoured through after Alice died, desperately looking for a way to bring her back.

"None of those work, you know."

They both jump at the sound of his voice. They stare at him, open-mouthed and dead silent. The book in Eliot's hand drops to the floor. Suddenly, Julia is shooting out of her seat and climbing over the couch. She barrels into Quentin, nearly knocking them both over.

"Oh my god, Q. It's really you?" There are tears streaming down her face. Quentin brushes them away with his thumb.

"Yeah, it's really me." Her smile is blinding.

"What the hell are you wearing?" she asks. He'd changed at the Library. It had been a relief to shed his old clothes. They were a terrible reminder of what happened at the Seam.

"New uniform." Behind her, Eliot stands up from the couch, clutching his cane. His eyes stay locked on Quentin's face as he crosses the room. Quentin lets go of Julia so they can meet halfway.

"Hey," he says, a little breathless. Eliot reaches out and shoves him.

"How many times do I have to tell you to cut the martyr bullshit?" His eyes are red-rimmed and look dangerously close to overflowing. "If you ever do anything that stupid and self-sacrificial again, I swear to every god out there I will drag you to the Underworld myself. Do you understand me?"

Quentin takes Eliot's free hand, presses a kiss against his palm. "I understand."

"Good." Then Eliot's lips are against his own, a hand snaking into his hair, and Quentin wants to bottle this moment. No trouble, no responsibilities. Just the two of them breathing each other in.

But it ends eventually and before he knows it Julia is calling everybody back to the apartment. They gather in the dining room, Eliot and Julia sandwiched on either side of him. Julia has an arm looped through his, fingers intertwined on the table, and Eliot keeps a hand firmly on Quentin's knee throughout dinner. He tells them about his deal with the Library, Alice filling in the gaps here and there.

"I gotta say, man," Josh tells him, "you're looking pretty sharp."

"You look like a narc," says Margo. Eliot shushes her and smoothes a hand down Quentin's lapel.

After dinner, they go back to what used to be Quentin's bedroom where Eliot carefully strips every piece of clothing off of him.

 

He gets his own office. There's plenty to spare. Kady keeps him company there whenever she's in the Library. That is, when she's not off somewhere conspiring with Alice or helping Harriet make the Library more accessible for hedges.

The others visit, too. Julia especially loves to wander through the stacks, getting lost among the books. Margo and Eliot come by as often as they can but they have little free time between working to remove Margo's banishment from Fillory and return her status as High King.

His first few weeks, Zelda has Quentin focus on repairs. A bookshelf here, a globe there. Minor mendings. She seems frazzled every time he sees her. She wears her newly appointed power uncomfortably, but with grave responsibility. It'll be a long way to go before the Library can make up for all the wrong it's done, but Zelda is determined to get them there.

She has Quentin and Kady sit in during Governing Council meetings, even though neither of them is technically a Librarian. The biggest concern of these meetings has been finding a way to combat the blood worms Everett released. As far as they could tell, there's never been a record of anyone successfully removing one, and it isn't a situation that leaves much room for experimentation. Every meeting is tinged with a desperation and hopelessness that none of them are willing to voice.

He and Kady are in his office when she finally reaches a breaking point. They're rereading texts they've already sifted through, triple-checking every line for a clue when she heaves her book across the room. It smacks into Quentin's Galileo thermometer and both go crashing to the floor.

Quentin calmly repairs the thermometer and places it back on his desk. He retrieves the book and tosses it onto the pile of discarded tomes they've amassed.

"I think it's time for a lunch break," he says. He squeezes Kady's shoulder on the way to the door. "We'll find a way. We always do."

 

It takes a bit of practice before Quentin learns to navigate the phones in the Neitherlands. Julia had answered more than one call on her shoe before he finally got the hang of the GPS dialing system. Of course, his newfound precision is almost irrelevant, considering most of his calls end up ringing random objects around Whitespire anyway. But it's not like there's anything remotely resembling a phone anywhere in Fillory, so he can hardly be blamed for that.

Eliot and Margo are officially full-time residents of Fillory again. It didn't take much to reverse her banishment, especially once Fen told the other kingdoms about Margo's quest in the desert and her part in liberating magic.

"She's more than proven herself as a worthy leader," Fen had argued.

So, Margo got her kingdom back and she immediately crowned Fen as High Queen—a decision largely made to appease Ru, but Margo confessed she'd been considering it herself for a while. Quentin was even given a brief leave of absence from the Library to attend both coronations.

Quentin is thrilled that Margo is High King again. What he's not thrilled about are the consequences—i.e. Eliot being tied up with Fillorian politics and having considerably less time to stop by the Library. Being in different time zones (and different planes of existence) makes communication especially difficult. Hence, Quentin's brave endeavor to master the Neitherlands phone system. For all its kinks, it was still infinitely more convenient than bunny messages.

"Margo made me the Head of Fillorian Agriculture," Eliot tells him one day. "That bitch."

Quentin laughs quietly, covering it with a short cough. "I thought they solved their farming crisis now that magic's back in full." One of the first things Zelda had done with her new position was remove the siphon.

"Exactly. It's completely redundant. I'm considering a coup. I'll keep you updated on the progress." Quentin doesn't bother hiding his laugh this time.

The call, as always, is over too soon. Eliot has a kingdom to help run and Quentin has a blood worm crisis to solve.

"I miss you," Quentin says before they hang up. Voicing it brings the constant hollow ache in his chest to the surface.

"I miss you, too. I'll visit soon. We can fuck in the stacks like a couple of undergrads." They let the silence linger, neither willing to let the call end. "Hey," Eliot says. "It's twenty years. We've survived longer."

"Together, not apart."

"We're still in this together. Ride or die, Q. You're not getting rid of me that easy."

Quentin smiles, clutching the phone a little tighter. "I'm holding you to that."

 

Eliot makes good on his promise a week later. They sit breathless and half-dressed in one of the more remote sections of the Library. Eliot rests his head against Quentin's chest, ear placed directly over his heartbeat. It's a habit he picked up after Quentin's resurrection. Quentin runs a hand through Eliot's mussed hair and lets his eyes slip shut.

"I brought you something," Eliot says. "From Fillory." He presses a kiss to Quentin's collarbone and pulls away. Quentin grunts in protest at his absence. When he opens his eyes, he sees Eliot rooting through the pocket of his discarded jacket. He pulls out a silver pocket watch, and he seems almost shy when he hands it over.

Quentin turns the watch over in his hands. Its outer surface is decorated with elaborate etchings but he's most impressed by its face: it has two extra dials, a moving star chart, the phases of the moon.

"I harvested it from a clock-sapling in the Queenswood," Eliot tells him. "I thought you'd like to have a piece of Fillory with you here." The obvious goes unsaid: that he'd be keeping a piece of Eliot with him as well. Quentin closes a hand around the watch reverently and meets Eliot's gaze.

"Thank you. It's beautiful."

Eliot smiles at him. He looks relieved, like he wasn't sure how Quentin would react to the gift. Quentin pulls him in by the back of his neck and crashes their lips together.

 _This._ This is worth a twenty-year contract, would have been worth one billion. It won't be easy but he's willing to fight for their second lifetime together. They’ll find a way. They always do.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, but please consider Quentin Coldwater in [this suit](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7b/31/9e/7b319efc4fad9b823503fe87436bfd75.jpg) that is all, thank you.
> 
> For anyone curious, the pocket watch comes from the books.


End file.
